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Sunday, June 26, 2011

I have a special interest in anything Tae Kwon Do (TKD), having spent many, many, many hours in my younger days involved in both TKD as a sport and as a martial art.

So when an email arrived in my in-box with the story of Johann Landkroon (aged 19) and his desire to get to the ITF World Championships in September, I thought I'd check it out.

The email was discussing an AMP scholarship that is up for grabs (AMP - Doing Your Thing), and the applicants that have been put forward all have made a case for winning a scholarship for various reasons. This email asked for our blog, or a blog author, to endorse Johann and encourage people to vote for him, as he's pretty close to the lead at the moment and there's only about 3 weeks left for a vote to be registered.

Now, I personally am going to give Johann my vote, and I'm going to explain why, but I haven't had a good look at the full range of applicants, and their stories and maybe you might want to check them out and decide for yourself who to vote for, and it might not be Johann. [Here's the candidate list] That's your decision of course. I'll just ask that you consider having a quick look and pressing the vote button somewhere along the line, because then companies like AMP will keep the dollars coming and fund future applicants.

It turns out Johann's performance will be a world first - he's a "special needs" student and has Down Syndrome and some other physical challenges, and he's been invited to attend to demonstrate his learning and show the benefits of TKD in its potential to help others with special needs.

The thing that appeals to me in his story is that he started Tae Kwon Do 4 years ago, and has made tremendous improvement in his personal capability both physically and mentally. He's been dealt a tough hand in life, but he's getting on and living a life worth living, and he seems to be surrounded by people that are helping him achieve this, and in turn, I'm sure they get something more out of life than can easily be measured. In essence, isn't this a big part of what life is about?

So if Johann makes it to the World Championships in September, with or without the boost from the AMP scholarship fund, he'll be in a position to send a strong message to any-one out there that striving to better yourself is one of life's more important lessons, one that delivers lasting satisfaction.